


Stick Together

by twowritehands



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-04 10:08:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4133541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twowritehands/pseuds/twowritehands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first bad date with flash forwards to the events of the movie and how they forget the bad stuff and find a growing attraction between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stick Together

Claire checked her watch, cursed that she had agreed to meet her blind date at a table outside the bar; her hair was no doubt frizzing in the humidity of the late evening. This was a dumb idea. She considered canceling. She considered work being the only thing she ever had to talk about with her sister. She checked her watch again and resolved to give the guy a chance.

“You must be Claire,” an intelligent voice cut into her thoughts. She looked up—found an extremely handsome man grinning at her and had a thrilling moment of hope and excitement—but then when she said that she was and he must be Owen, and he took his seat across from her at the rickety little table, she noted the board shorts and flip flops.

What is this, spring break?

 

_A walk through the woods 65 million years ago. He couldn’t have said it better. Though she counted herself lucky not to have to deal with insects the size of cats. That was a prehistoric thing, right? And those, like, Venus fly traps big enough to swallow a human. Or wait, maybe that was just Jumanji…_

_Her heels kept sinking in the soft mud or catching on vines. But like hell was she going barefoot. She looked down at herself and noted that she was sweating through her white clothes. Fan fucking tastic._

_But your possibly dead nephews are much more important, Claire. Jesus._

_Ahead of her, Owen swung easily up onto a huge fallen, vine covered tree, crouching there for a moment to assure no danger lurked out of sight on the other side. She got a clear view of his ass and thick thighs in his snug jeans, his sturdy boots, the swoop of his lower back accented by the strap of his gun. She lifted an eyebrow, impressed by how well he wore his own clothes._

_Their first date should have been a hike._

 

Conversation at first was stilted. Her disappointment in his underdeveloped sense of what mature men ought to wear had greatly dried up her enthusiasm for small talk. They began with the pleasantries. Haven’t been waiting long, I hope. No, how are you? Isn’t our mutual friend the best? Then they verified what they had heard of one another. She's head of operations of the entire park. He's a dino behaviorist. Yes, it’s a challenging job. Oh, the benefits are great.

Claire wouldn’t exactly call the date riveting. Sure, he was handsome, but there was something about him and the way he looked at her. Like he was analyzing her, noting her instincts, finding ways to worm in and control her.

“How about tequila shots?” He asked brightly with a playful drum on the table between them. Clearly he was ready to get this party started, loosen her up. She politely declined any alcohol. Strike two: he pressured her.

“I don’t want any,” she said again with a little edge that she tried to dull at the last minute. Be nice, Claire.

“What are you on a diet or something?”

“Sure, that’s it,” her tone was scathing and she didn't correct it. Since when does a woman need a reason to not want to get hammered with a stranger?

From there, they descended into argument. It did not last long, both of them realizing it was far too soon to be showing their fiery negative sides and capping it. They traded tight smiles, reached for their manners. Maturely attempted to move on.

He brought up the weather.

Oh god.

Five minutes into the blind date and Claire was counting the minutes until she could say she gave it a fair shot and leave.

 

_The seconds stretched into what felt like hours. Claire squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to breath._

_Indominus Rex stuck her humongous head into the dilapidated garage, attempting to see them, to sniff them out. Beside her, Owen’s body had gone perfectly still with tension. She matched him even though every instinct cried to run. Or fight. But just now neither was an option._

_For some reason the metal of the jeep bumper had some sharp points that scrapped the skin of her shoulder blades from where she pressed herself against it, but she dare not move._

_This could be it. This could be the way she died._

_Undiluted fear coursed through her veins. The hours went into days._

_Then it was over._

_Owen breathed and caught her eye. His expression went soft with a little smile and had this glint in his eye. Like he’d seen it; he’d seen the pattern of her instinct, he’d figured her out a little bit._

_Of the Fight, Flight, or Freeze instincts, Claire usually fought and she never froze._

_But just now she’d had no choice but to freeze. She’d had no choice but to stay with Owen._

_If she knew one thing, it was that she had to stay with Owen. And he knew it, too._

 

Claire opened the app on her phone where she had arranged an itinerary for the evening. When she mentioned that if they started walking now, they could have a nice stroll down the beach during sunset and could reach the south end by dark, he didn’t need to be told that there would be a beach party there with tiki torches, BBQ, guys juggling fire, live music and dancing and stuff; the park staff threw a party like that every night. Not Claire’s usual scene, but hey, there were very few ways in which to “let loose” on this island.

“Then there’s a fireworks show,” she explained, “It’s Rexy’s birthday; she’s the oldest asset we have so we’re going all out. All the overnight visitors of the park will be there, but I could get us really good spot on the hill—“

But she stopped talking because he’d laughed a little bit and shook his head. She questioned him. He shrugged, “You planned this out?”

“It should be a really nice time, Owen,” she defended, cheeks flaring hot. A beach walk, good food and live music followed by fire works? Hello. That’s a really good date!

He pulled a face, “Meh, sounds like a holiday fun package we sell to season ticket owners.” Well, he wasn’t wrong; except they had no such package. Yet. She switched to a different app on her phone and made a note.

“Why don’t we go for a ride on my motorcycle?” He asked, “We can see the sunset from the top of the mountain, away from everybody. Then maybe do some night swimming under one of the waterfalls?” he jumped his eyebrows.

She scoffed and flat refused.

“You have to live more organically than by following check lists on your phone!” he cried, eyes alight with enthusiasm. “Let’s just get on my bike and see where the night takes us! Hey, bet you haven’t been up on the north shore and just sat and watched the waves crash on the rocks, have you?”

“How is sitting and watching water more fun than fireworks?”

He laughed, “Because it’s not _planned_ , it’s not scheduled, there aren’t a hundred pyro-technicians making the magic happen. It’s just us, real people doing something _real_ under the stars.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Throw out the plan, Claire. Let’s just—“

“Wander aimlessly and waste our time?”

“Exactly!” he cried, “When was the last time you just went for a ride, hm? Nowhere to go, just hopped on and followed the roads wherever they take you?”

Claire explained that she had no intentions of spending the evening straddling a bike in a skirt while holding onto a sweaty man she barely knew. And, anyway, she was sure he didn’t even have a second helmet.

 

_“Come on!” he cried and she looked around in the panicking swarm of fleeing bodies to see Owen climb onto a four wheeler. She breathed out in relief, oh thank god. She hurried and climbed on. She held his shoulders at first, her hands sliding down his arms a little as he picked up considerable speed on the ATV so that she gripped his bulging biceps. Around a tight corner, she looped her arms around his waist. He stank horribly of gasoline and sweat, but that was of little concern. She knew where the boys were and Owen was getting her to them as fast as possible._

 

The most enjoyable part of the date was when they traded stories about how their parents reacted to the news that their children would be working at the new dinosaur park. He made her laugh with an impression of his mother, who only meant well because it was clear her only fault was loving him too much and he knew it. When it was her turn, Claire accidentally revealed too much by mentioning that she had so far disappointed her mother by not being married and having kids by now.

Owen gave her a sincere grin and said, “I’m sure she’s a nice lady but screw her for making you feel like that. You’ll do it on your own time and by your own standards.”

He got points for that.

Which he soon after lost when he showed a clear disinterest in her educational background, what she majored in and why. He called it that stuffy corporate, capitalistic bullshit. And he described himself as more of an adventure man.

From teenaged delinquent to Navy Seal to Raptor Trainer, that much is obvious. Give me a break. He demanded to know why she assumed he was a teenaged delinquent. She always just had a good read on people like that. He showed offense.

They skirted this sink hole of an argument with the help of the humor they’d shared a moment before and Claire teetered between giving up on this or braving it for a little while longer… Then he used the word bro, and following that she caught him checking out her chest.

Claire grit her teeth and sighed. Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods?

 

_He held the pterodactyl off his throat with nothing but the sheer strength in his arms, but Claire wasn’t about to let him find his limit. She picked up the gun he'd lost and slammed the butt of it into the thing’s head, then flipped the weapon around and emptied a few bullets into its body before it could get up again._

_Owen got to his feet, looking at her like… she couldn’t identify the look before next thing she knew, he was kissing her._

_He held her firmly against his body, his mouth covering hers, tongues brushing. While amazing, it was far from a girl’s dream kiss—they both stank and were exhausted and still terrified and were both probably out of a job. Not to mention they had only one not-at-all successful date under their belt so knew very little about one another and surviving together through man-eating dinosaur attacks did not fix that or guarantee in any way the true love a girl dreams about._

_But, mother of all things holy, was his kiss hot. He kissed her like this visceral animal claiming a mate. Another thing she, as an independent woman didn’t need—but who doesn’t need passion like this, Claire. Jesus._

_His lips against her ignited a full-fledged war within her. Let him take you. No, you’re better than to submit. Oh, but think how good would it be._

_Then it was over and he let her go but kept her breath._

_She didn’t have time to dwell on it—because there were Zach and Gray OH THANK GOD!_

 

When they had finished their drinks and had talked for a respectful amount of time, Claire made her excuses and got out of there. He insisted on paying and she let him. She usually preferred to go Dutch—keep things equal--but she figured it was the least he could do to make up for being such a huge immature disappointment.

Who needs to date, anyway? Dating only gets in the way. It’s one more ball to juggle. She smirked to herself in the car. Or _balls_ to _jiggle._ Immediately she schooled her expression and averted her mind from the sexual humor. Not now, Claire.

But her mind, now on that track, decided to do some quick math until she was suddenly thinking about how it’d been months since she’d had sex. She recalled the way, after he paid, he’d put an arm around her back for a quick one armed hug and a polite, “You’re beautiful and this was fun,” but nothing more.

Apparently she was beautiful but not enough to even hint that he wanted to see her again.

Claire gripped the steering wheel. How dare he? She was a catch, okay. He would be lucky to have her. He could have at least _tried_. She mentally ran through all her best qualities. Her intelligence, her success, her obvious self-confidence, not to mention her physical attributes, her ass, her legs, her eyes, her flawless skin, her naturally red hair.

What was wrong with her that he couldn’t at least have tried?

Nothing. He was clearly an idiot. That was it.

 

_It’d been hours since it was over, but it wasn’t until the boys were safely delivered to their parents that Claire finally felt like she could breath. Owen pulled her away from the reuniting family. She looked up into his eyes and remembered that kiss. Remembered a lot of things._

_“What do we do now?” she asked before she could think better of it._

_His eyes narrowed a little. “We should probably stick together,” he said, “For survival.”_

_Blushing and having no thought but that she liked that response—she liked that he wanted to see more of her, wanted the same thing she wanted—she smiled and they fell into step out into the sunlight._

* * * 

* * *

* * *

There was a lot to think about. Claire ran this island and it was in shambles, literal shambles, and there were a lot of dinosaurs loose and still a lot of people that could be eaten. But for once her mind wasn’t obsessing over a work-related to-do list.

 

“Need a shower,” she laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear. Feeling fifteen and on her first date. The hell is this?

“Yeah,” his beaming smile turned into a teasing grimace as if he smelled something awful. She scoffed, offended but in a humorous way and elbowed him.

“And you could use one too, Mr. Gasoline.”

“Oh, god,” he lifted his shirt and sniffed, eyes going wide, “I’ve stopped noticing it. Probably ruined my sense of smell.”

 

She giggled. Oh god. Reign it in. Don’t be this available! Shut up, Claire. Just have fun.

He was eyeing her in this analytical sideways way. And she lifted her eyebrows, “What?”

“I see you tryin’ to stay in control.”

“Stop it.”

“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing.”

 

“Yeah right,” she scoffed, “Men are intimated by women who like to stay in control.”

“Men are intimated by raptors, too,” He replied with this unfairly adorable little grin.

“Oh,” she laughed, feeling another blush, “But you like raptors, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

 

More of that nervous, flattered laughter bubbled out of her. She stopped and looked down, trying to reign in the thrills. Wanting to hide her blush but peaking up at him, she confessed, “That was smooth.”

He looked extremely proud of himself.

“You’re not going to train and control me like you did the raptors, though.” She flashed her steeliest warning.

 

“God, no,” he shuddered. “I wouldn’t take work home with me like that.”

“Good.”

“Seriously, though,” he took her hand. “You’re not going to totally control me, either. It’s got to be a mutually beneficial relationship.”

 

She took her hand back, feeling sassy, “Scrub the poison from your skin and we’ll talk about benefits.” With that she gave him a wink, turned and strode away, knowing for a fact that he had a perfect view of her ass as she went. Her car wasn't far, and had come out of the dino showdown in tact.

She told herself she wouldn’t look back. But when she reached the vehicle, she broke and looked anyway. She couldn’t help it. He was still there, and holding a hand over his heart. He gave her a cocky little wave with a cocky little smile, and she rolled her eyes.

 

Claire got behind the wheel, feeling it in her bones that tonight was going to be a completely different kind of adventure.

 


End file.
